Title: Antecedents and consequences of Indian consumers' attitude towards organic clothing purchase

Authors: Geetika Varshneya; Gopal Das

Addresses: Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, M.D University Campus, Haryana, 124001, India ' Indian Institute of Management Rohtak, M.D University Campus, Haryana, 124001, India

Abstract: The present study is an attempt to study the impact of four antecedents (hedonic shopping value, utilitarian shopping value, lifestyle and informational influence) on the attitude towards organic clothing. Further, to examine the impact of attitude on the purchase intention and ecological behaviour. The six hypotheses were tested with structural equation modelling technique. The data was collected through a structured questionnaire from Indian consumers of age group 18 years and above. Results indicated that hedonic shopping value; lifestyle and informational influence have positive influence on the attitude towards organic clothing. Further, attitude positively influences ecological behaviour and purchase intention for organic clothing. The insights from the study may help marketers to gain competitive advantage. They may design programs to educate consumers about healthy lifestyle. Marketers can also do segmentation based on lifestyle patterns and do the promotions accordingly. Further, considering the enormous potential of Indian apparel retail and organic clothing sectors, exploring key factors related to consumers' attitude may enrich the general understanding of this emerging sector.

Keywords: organic clothing; consumer attitudes; purchase intention; hedonic shopping value; utilitarian shopping value; lifestyle; informational influence; India; ecological behaviour; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBEM.2016.079788

International Journal of Business and Emerging Markets, 2016 Vol.8 No.4, pp.383 - 402

Received: 07 May 2015
Accepted: 07 Jan 2016

Published online: 14 Oct 2016 *

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